Outdoor production of Shakespeare rom com

AN outdoor theatre company is coming to Henley with the Shakespeare play that inspired its name.

Illyria, which follows a time-
honoured tradition as a travelling troupe of actors, will perform Twelfth Night in the riverside gardens of Peel Fold in Mill Lane, once the home of actress Beatrice Lillie.

Producer Stephen Badham says: “We’ve done Shakespeare plays for the last 32 years and Twelfth Night is where we’ve taken the name from.

“We also like the wordplay as it has lots of homonyms in it, like ‘silly’, ‘hysteria’ and lots of words that relate to the chaos of Shakespeare’s plays, especially the comedies.”

Set in the imaginary dukedom of Illyria, the play follows Viola, who has been shipwrecked. Her only means of surviving is to disguise herself as a man, Cesario, and use her quick wit and fine singing voice to work for Duke Orsino.

Orsino is lovesick for Lady Olivia and sends Cesario to visit her on his behalf and win her over. The plan backfires, however, as Olivia falls for him/her.

Meanwhile, Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby Belch, is up to mischief and plans to humiliate her steward, Malvolio. Cue many cases of mistaken identity, romance and tears of laughter and joy.

While the troupe stays true to the Elizabethan roots of the Bard, the ensemble aims to capture the timelessness of his stories.

Stephen says: “The themes are utterly universal in this play. It’s about gender, which is a very specific discussion at the moment. It’s about sex, mistaken identity and identity in general.

“It’s about love, both requited and unrequited, and how people respond to that.

“We always pull out the comedy in our shows too.There’s our trademark ‘frying pan to the face’ gag that we put into most of our plays.

“It’s not just about the comedy, of course. There are also moments of pathos and seriousness and we like to make sure we do justice to those as well, especially with Malvolio. He is a tragi-comic character and I think we all know a Malvolio, someone slightly pompous who takes themselves a bit too seriously and gets his comeuppance.

“One of the things we take pride in is the verse and we work from the original first folio editions. We pay proper attention to it and make sure that it’s done justice.

“We present the play on a traditional Elizabethan-style stage, sort of split-level. It’s a bit like the Globe with a wishbone staircase and an upper-level sort of balcony.”

Five actors will be playing multiple roles, which sometimes involves quick turnarounds.

Stephen says: “This always makes the plays fun to do because you have to find ways in which to represent the characters.

“There might be four or five characters on stage but two people are playing them, so you have to come up with some inventive ways of presenting the play.

“Half the fun is trying to work out how on earth people are making their entrances and exits. There’s one point in the play where a character is referred to on stage while the actor is playing a different character and has to rush off and change costume.”

Two of the cast members, MacKenzie Mellen and Amy Lockwood, will be familiar to anyone who saw last year’s production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Rupert House School playing field.

MacKenzie will play Olivia and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, while Amy is playing Viola and Maria. They are joined by David Sayers as Orsino and Sir Toby Belch, Callum Stewart as Feste, Sebastian and Fabian and Nick Taylor as Malvolio and Antonio.

• Illyria Outdoor Theatre presents Twelfth Night at Peel Fold, Mill Lane, Henley, on Saturday, September 2 at 7pm. Tickets cost £20 adults, £13 concessions. This is an outdoor event which will continue in wet weather and the show is accessed across grass. Seating is not provided, so please bring a picnic with a picnic blanket or low chair. A bar service is available on site. The show has a running time of two hours, including a 20-minute interval. It is suitable for ages eight and over but pets are not allowed. For more details, call the box office on (01491) 525050 or visit kentontheatre.co.uk